We all want to be happy and achieving it is not a one-step process at all. You have to eliminate negative vibes and you need to work on it. To be able to be live the life you desire, you must avoid these 6 mistakes you’re doing over and over again.

Don’t Feel Sorry For What You Are

Being true to yourself is not a mistake, and it oftentimes leads you to the right people that you should keep in your life. Those people who seem do not understand you, they are the ones who are not true to you, open your eyes and heart. You were not born to please other people, you don’t owe everybody an explanation if you chose to follow your decisions in life.

Stop Criticizing Other People And Accept One’s Flaws

We were not born perfectly, all of us commit mistakes unintentionally. Learn how to forgive the people who have hurt you but do not forget the lessons it taught you. The moment you agreed to accept your flaws as well as the flaws of other people, you’ll tend to see the life on a brighter side; this will keep you to be positive each and every day.

Setting Expectations Too High

If you happen to fail in a task or in one of your goals, do not lose hope. Each day reminds you that there is another chance to make the right decisions. Never settle for less but also, do not set high standards or expectations simply because, you’re just let yourself be drown to disappointment.

Stop Whining

Focus on the things you can do at the moment, think of successful people around you and ask yourself what they have done in the past that made them successful today? Believe it or not, they have gone all tiring life hurdles but they made it a point that hurdles are meant to be just hurdles, there is no challenge in life that you cannot surpass because God made you strong with a good heart.

Leave The People Who Keep on Belittle You

Are you not tired of being around those people who want nothing but to see you in trouble? It’s about time to bid goodbye to them, and start a new happy life without them. They are not worth your time and affection; the right people will still love and understand you through ups and downs of your life.

Don’t Forget Your Parents, Love Them Even They Get Old

They are your first teachers who taught you the meaning of life and everything in this world you didn’t know. They have sacrificed too many things just to make you happy from the very first day you were born. Family problems are not excuse to forget and live away from them. Make and spend time with them and by seeing you make them happy.

Once you followed these easy steps, you will absolutely have the life you really desire.

Challenges in life can either break or make you, might as well follow the latter one. When life seems so tough on you and everything is falling apart, here are motivational quotes you should read when you’re feeling down.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Dale Carnegie

If everything in your life is not in your favor, all you have to do is to believe that there is hope in every challenge you encounter. Keep on aiming higher and never think about the setbacks that pulling you down.

“The ultimate measure of a man is where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” –Martin Luther King Jr.

Pain changes people and when we say changes, you should opt to good changes that will help you succeed in life. No matter what it takes, prove to other people that though you are currently at your lowest point, it does not necessarily mean that your purpose in life has ended. Take a stand and never surrender.

“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than growing with them.” –Bernard M. Baruch

If you want to live a happy life, you should learn how to move on and forget the past that once hurt you. Let these be the reason in making yourself a better one. Troubles and problems are meant to shape you better not to destroy you.

“I am not bound to win, I am bound to be true. I am not bound to success, but I am bound to live up to the light I have.” –Abraham Lincoln

If you have noticed that you’re taking a different path compared to others, go on and don’t compare yourself to them. Being different is extra-ordinary and by being extra-ordinary person you will tend to enjoy living the life that everyone wishes to have. Remember, at some point in your life, you have to create your own sunshine.

“Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”–Oprah Winfrey

During those bad times in your life, you will definitely experience some of your circles will leave you because you are no longer useful to them. Open your eyes and you will absolutely acknowledge the people that still accept and be there for you through ups and downs. When you find these people, never let them go.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”- Frederick Douglass

You should take your struggles positively, as these will show you the things you’ve never seen and done before. Struggles are meant to push yourself to the hardest point as you can, the more you surpass every struggle, the more life lessons you will learn during the process. You cannot be successful without learning all down the ropes in life.

Today, people have become so busy chasing after success and prosperity that they hardly have time for themselves and their families. However, the truth of the matter is, the best and finest things in life are absolutely free or cost very little. What we should appreciate is that it’s the little things we do in life that matter the most. You don’t need to live in a palace or have millions of dollars in your account to enjoy quality life. Discussed below are some things you can do every day to improve the quality of your life without breaking the bank.

Be Grateful

Gratitude is one of the most overlooked attributes, but it is one attribute that has immense benefits to us. Cultivating gratitude does not cost anything yet if you use it every day, it will make your life better. Research carried out over the years, shows that being gratefulnessopens upopportunities to more relationships, enhances physical and psychological health, improves empathy and decreases aggression,boosts self-esteem, improves mental strength, as well as helps you to have better sleep.

We all have the ability to cultivate gratitude even during tough and challenging times. All you need is to focus on the good things that have happened in your life and be grateful for rather than focusing on the negatives and what is not working. Having an attitude of gratitude will cost you nothing but you can be assured it will improve the quality of your life; you will be a more satisfied and fulfilled person.

Invest in Meditation

Meditation is another great asset you have that can significantly improve the quality of your life. How much can you possibly spend on pills that promise you more focus, less anxiety, greater creativity, improved patience, and better memory? With meditation, you achieve all this without spending a dime. Sparing a couple of minutes per day to meditate will have incredible impact in your life.

For beginners, you can start with three minutes per day in the evening or the time that is most appropriate with you. Look for a quiet place and sit comfortably either on the floor or in a chair and then close your eyes as you begin breathing slowly and deeply. Get rid of all distractions and focus on your breathing. Doing this everyday will make a whole lot of difference in your mental and physical health.

Incorporate the 3Es in Your Schedule

Exercising, eating right, and rising early will make your life better and more meaningful.

We are what we eat and as such if you want to enjoy a healthy life, you should also invest in the right diet. Research has shown that eating lots of junk and fast foods increases the risk of heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure which are detrimental to our health and quality of life. Therefore, make effort to eat a balanced diet with all the essential nutrients every day.

Apart from eating right, you should create time to exercise. You don’t need a $2,000 weight machine or a $5,000 treadmill to work out, but simple exercises such as brisk walking, running, jogging, cycling, push-ups etc. can help you look and feel great and younger. Exercising regularly also improves the quality of your sleep as well as productivity.

You should also develop a culture of waking up early. Studies have revealed that early risers are more successful, happier, productive, and healthier. Waking up early gives you some extra time to exercise and rejuvenate before going to work which boosts your mood and gives you more energy for the rest of the day. You will also have some time to focus on what is on your schedule uninterrupted. All this goes a long way to enhance the quality of your life.

When you do these things on a daily basis, you will undoubtedly see a positive change in your life! The return on investment will be immense.

Relaxation is crucial for your wellbeing as well as mental health. Every person requires time to chill out and enjoy himself, but this can be forgotten when one is too busy. However, you don’t require lots of time to relax and ease out stress because there are simple things you can do at the comfort of your home that can be of great help to you. One of the ways you can relax is through meditation. Relaxation is very important in one’s life such that research shows that people who create time to relax are better placed to bounce back from challenging times, have better health, and are happier.

Meditation is a relaxation technique that helps to calm your mind thus giving you peace. Research shows that the rest people get during meditation is even much deeper compared to the rest one gets while asleep. As a matter of fact, twenty minutes of meditation equates to seven hours of deep sleep. In this article, we are going to look at 5 easy meditations that can help you relax and improve the quality of your life.

The Counting Technique (Counting)

One of the easiest way to start off meditation as a beginner is to employ the counting technique. Here, you quietly count in your mind as you breathe in and out. For instance, you count one in and out, two in and out and so forth until you reach your target. In case something disrupts you and you lose track of counting, the rule of the thumb is, you start all over again.

Visualize (Visualization)

Visualization brings positive energy into your body, mind, and spirit which in turn expands your creativity capacity. As you meditate, the mind concentrates on what you are focusing on while the body relaxes. When the body is relaxed and the mind clear, you will be able to visualize ideas and images. Concentrate on one thing at a time for example color, place, face, etc. and assess how this makes you feel.

Come Up with a Mantra (Mantra)

When learning how to meditate it is important you develop your personal mantra that lifts your spirit and makes you feel better. As you silently repeat the words of you mantra, let your mind clear of all clutter.

Breathing Mediation

Want to feel better after a hectic day? Square breathing can help. Breathing meditation helps to calm the mind thus enabling you develop inner peace. Stopping all distractions makes your mind more lucid and clearer. Ensure you sit in a comfortable way and keep your back straight to keep your mind alert. Your eyes should be partially closed and your attention should be on the breathing. Start by breathing naturally through the nostrils without controlling your breath;concentrate on the sensation of your breath as it enters and leaves without thinking of anything else. At first, you will find it hard to concentrate on your breathing only, but with a little effort, it will be possible to do this. Avoid the temptation of following different thoughts and remained focused on the sensation of the breath. When your mind settles on this, you will achieve great relaxation and thus worth every effort.

Meditation is very refreshing and rejuvenating and you will be able to enjoy your life and be more productive.

Whether you are learning a foreign language, a new sport or how to play an instrument, the benefit you get throughaccelerated learning is immense. However, the biggest challenge most people go through is remembering what they have learnt because there is so much that goes on in the day and time is limited. The key to accelerated learning is in combining more hours with the effectiveness of the time you spend learning.

The Bucket and Water Analogy

If you were to fill a bucket with water, nothing will run out until the bucket is full as long as there is no leakage. However, our brains function differently. As a matter of fact, most of the information that at one point enters our brains eventually leak out. Instead of looking at the brain as a bucket which retains everything we put in it, we should perceive it as a leaking bucket. The brain wasn’t designed to remember every bit of information or experience you go through in life.

Remembering 90% of Everything

The learning pyramid developed in the 1960s and largely attributed to the NTL Institute in Bethel, Maine, has an outline on how humans learn. According to research, people remember:

About 5% of what they learn in lectures

10% of what they read in books

20% of the learning from audio visuals

30% from demonstrations

50% in group discussions

75% through practice

90% of what they learn when they immediately put it to use such as by teaching others

In light of the above, there seemsto be a disconnect in the way we learn and our desire to remember. Mostly, we use videos, classroom lectures and books all of which are non-interactivelearning methods that result into 80 to 95% information leakage. Instead of forcing your brain to remember information through passive methods, your focus should be on participatory methods that deliver more effective results within a short time. This means:

If you want to quickly learn how to speak a foreign language, your focus should be on speaking with native speakers who give you an immediate feedback.

If you want to get in shape fast, work with a personal fitness trainer instead of spending your energy and time watching YouTube videos.

Hiring a local music teacher can enable you learn a new instrument faster.

Balancing between Time and Money

You have heard many times people saying they don’t have the time to do something. However, time is the greatest equalizer because irrespective of where you are, who you are, and how much you strive for efficiency, you only have 24 hours in a day. Every minute is unique and once it passes, it can never be regained unlike money that you can find later.

If it is true that we all have 24 hours, how then is it that some people become successful at a young age irrespective of their background while others lament in poverty. The answer is simple; they have learnt how to maximize on effectiveness instead of efficiency.

Making the most of your time by focusing on solutions that deliver the greatest impact is what matters.

Learning how to remember more information daily can significantly cut the time you need to relearn old knowledge and help you on acquiring new ones.

Instead of going for small wins, go for big wins that are effective in your learning process. Getting into discussion groups, practicing by doing and teaching others can help you remember lots of information and this will be to your advantage.

Running is one of the exercises that people opt for when they want to burn fat and get rid of stress. The beauty with running is that it doesn’t require lots of investment since what you need is a good pair of running shoes, a tracksuit, a sweat jacket, and a good open road. However, running at most burns 10 calories per minute as recorded in a normal marathon pace. If you want to lose weight faster, running is not the best option. There are lots of other alternatives and below are some suggestions you can try out.

Battle Ropes

This workout can help enhance your hand grip, strength, and balance. By design, battle ropes helps you work harder and spur you to try more. This provokes your power and strength reservoirs when exercising. The ropes will help you build muscles depending on the variations of battle ropes you do. Trying out motions such as circular or linear; enables you to work out specific group of muscles.

Cycling

Cycling is extremely beneficial to your health for a number of reasons. It helps you enhance your muscle strength and flexibility, toning your waist and legs, pumping your heart and making it stronger in addition to rejuvenating your brain. As an exercise, cycling puts your entire body to test and improves your health significantly.

Even if you don’t have much time to spare, you can still take up cycling. For instance, instead of taking a bus or driving your car, cycling to work can be more beneficial both health-wise and in terms of money. For convenience, you can buy folding bikes which can easily fit in your car, office or even bag. Bikes are also affordable yet functional. Some of the biking options you may consider include:

Static Bike

Buying a static bike and using it at home to do bike sprints can be a good alternative to running. With 60 seconds of hard cycling, you can burn lots of calories. Ensure you peddle as fast as you can for the 60 seconds and gradually slowdown in pace. If you repeat this a few more items, you will burn a lot of calories within minutes.

Fat Tire Biking

This is a much more powerful and demanding biking exercise. Unlike the regular tires, fat tires are bigger in size. This means they require more peddling power if you are to move. This helps you burn about 1500 calories per hour of cycling which is equivalent to 25 calories per minute. This is a massive difference from many exercises available today.

Burpees

This is a collection of exercises mainly comprising squat jumps and pushups. Because of its intensity, burpees demand a lot of endurance and strength. This is why it is exceptional for building stamina and balance. By jumping doing pushups and squatting, you work your entire body and every muscle is engaged. This is a good option to help you lose weight and improve your physical endurance.

You don’t require any special equipment to perform this exercise. You can do it right on the balcony, in your garden or at the gym as long as you have space to jump. If you do a few reps and combine them with other varieties of exercises, the end results will impress you. Both your mental and physical health will pick up fast.

The above three exercises can be combined with others to give you maximum benefit. They do not require lots of time; they can be done both outside and inside your home, and can be a great option for busy people irrespective of the weather conditions. You have no excuse to try them out and see what happens.

Whenever we hear about learning, we think of a long term commitment of money and time. While this is true in some instances, it is not always the case. As a matter of fact, every person has innate ability to learn a life changing skill within a period as short as 6 months. These skills can have a tremendous impact in your life and through them, you can reap immense benefits. Below are some of these skills:

Speed Reading

The mega successful personalities such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the rest understand that the ability to read faster is a super power in itself. This is because faster processing of information from articles, books, and reports can help you learn faster and therefore improve every aspect of your life as well. Knowledge is power. There are lots of free courses that you can enroll in and begin learning how to read faster.

Public Speaking

According to research, the fear of public speaking is greater in multiples than that of death. Standing in front of hundreds or thousands of people and exposing yourself completely can be terrifying. However, learning how to public speak can be a game changer for you. According to Warren Buffet, the number one skill you ought to possess in order to succeed in life is public speaking. Communication, sales, and confidence are skills you can developonce you have a foundation in public speaking.

Accounting

If you want to venture into business, accounting is an absolutely necessary skill. While you don’t need to be an expert, having accounting knowledge can enable you manage your personal finances so as to meet your goals. There are lots of books and free online accounting courses you can take and boost your understanding.

MicrosoftExcel

Having a basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel is commendable, but advancing and learning on the powerful functionalities hidden within excel can make your life much easier. Many companies globally are looking for individuals who have mastered excel to help them organize and manage multiple parts of their businesses. Therefore, having knowledge of excel can give you an edge over the rest. There are lots of free resources including videos that you can take advantage of and learn excel.

Blogging

If you want to spread your ideas, grow your business or build your brand, blogging is an indispensable tool. Since it was introduced, blogging has enjoyed massive success and today, over 2 million blog posts are written daily. Anyone can start blogging because all you need is a content management system which you can get for free such as WordPress. Writing great content is the beginning of blogging success.

Weight Training

Unlike learning a new language which will take a long time, weight training is a skill you can master within a very short time. There is no promise that you will get a ripped body like that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but you will be able to see faster results irrespective of your goal. Understanding how to work out properly can help you avoid physical strain and injuries. The good news is there are tons of resources on YouTube that you can watch and exercise for a start.

Photo and Video Editing

It is a fact that we are living in a digital world in which the consumption of photos and videos through social media channels such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook is extremely high. Learning photo and video editing through tools such as iMovie and Photoshop can help you further your blogging agenda, make your social media channels attractive or even help others at a fee.

It is therefore not difficult or time consuming to learn a new skill. All you need is dedication, good planning and time management. Who knows, you could be a diamond in the rough.

It is much easier to allow your home become messy and cluttered than to keep it organized. This is because organization requires discipline and diligence. For this reason, most people find it difficult organizing their homesthus making their lives a bit miserable. A clutter-free home makes you feel relaxed and accomplished

How Does a Cluttered Home Affect You?

A cluttered home makes you feel tired and hopeless. When things are scattered all over your space, they create fatigue and negative energy. If the situation is not addressed at this point, it may ultimately lead to total confusion and lowered productivity. The good news isall this can be solved in a day by simply creating time to declutter your home and organize it appropriately.

Benefits of Organized Space

A well-arranged and organized home gives you peace of mind. Living in a home that is neat and everything is in its rightful place, calms you and gives you quality space to interact and bond with your family.

A cluttered home tends to be dirty becausewith time, dust and debris accumulate on surfaces. This significantly reduces the quality of your indoor environment which is detrimental to your health. Organizing and cleaning your home improves the indoor air quality which in turn improves your health and that of your family.

A clutter-free and orderly home puts you at the driver’s seat of your living space. When things in your home are neatly and tidily arranged, you feel you are in control of your life because you can easily get what you are looking for without wasting lots of time. Additionally, the feeling of being overwhelmed is dealt with leaving you to enjoy your sweet life once more!

How to Declutter and Organize Your Home

As seen above, decluttering your home comes with numerous benefits. Every effort you put into the process pays big by improving the quality of your life. Here are tips to help you organize your home hassle-free.

Three Piles- Donate, Keep, Pitch

This is the first step in decluttering your home. It is important you categorize the items you are sorting to make your work easier. In each of the category, put things in three piles; the stuff you will keep, the stuff you will dispose of, and the things you are not sure what to do. Only keep things that are really worth in your home. If you have a juicer or toaster you haven’t used for months, then it’s more likely you will not use it in the future.

Once you are done sorting, put the things you are getting rid of and the ones you aren’t sure about in cardboards and mark them appropriately. Secondly, put the things you are retaining back to where they belong and organize them neatly. For the things you aren’t sure about, give yourself 30 days and it will be clearer whether you really need them or should get rid of them.

Organize your home by defining the functionality of the different spaces. Clutter normally comes when there are no clear boundaries on what items should be put on what spaces. Things that shouldn’t be found in your living needn’t be there.

Another tip to help you organize your home and create more space is by installing ceiling shelves. Here, you can store things like picture frames,sportswear, and other items you don’t use on a day to day basis. The best thing about having ceiling shelves is that they do not take up useful space and makes your home look neat and pretty.

Time management is the greatest skill of all time because once you know how to allocate your hours, minutes and seconds, there is nothing you cannot possibly do. According to philosophers, time is the equalizing factor bringing the rich and poor to the same drawing board. By learning the following hacks, you too can start your journey towards productivity and wealth creation.

Understand Your Goals and Prioritize Them

You need to know the number of goals you have and in the event you do not have any goals you can point to, create one today. Effective time management requires that you have goals you are working towards. If on the other hand your goals are too many, organize them so that at any one given time, you have a single goal for each primary area of your life. Each day, focus on the one goal that has the most value and top priority. This could be a business goal, health goal, or even a financial goal.

Assign a Monetary Value to Your Time

Time management becomes much easier if you are aware of the worth of your time. If each hour you earn $600, spending 30 minutes on Facebook will cost you $300. Keeping a time log so that you know exactly where most of your time is spent can help you cut down on wasteful activities.

Shun Perfectionism and Give Your Best

There is nothing that is perfect because everything is work in progress. Never waste your time trying to get that perfect finish and instead concentrate on giving your best. If you are prone to perfectionism, start forcing yourself to let some things go so that you can get the job done.

Schedule Your Time and Think about it Daily

Having a prioritized task list or planning a project before you begin working on it can save you lots of minutes each day. The best time to plan is before going to bed or very early in the morning before you start working. Separating your planning time from your task execution time will enable you achieve much more quickly.

Break Bigger Goals into Small Tasks

You cannot do goals, but you can do tasks. The moment you are done with goal setting, try to work out the approach you will use to achieve that particular goal. Then turn the steps into smaller projects and tasks each having a deadline. This will enable you to have daily fulfillment as you move towards achieving a bigger goal.

Delegate! Delegate!! Delegate!!!

Because you know the much your time is worth, assess the tasks that you need to complete in a day and make a decision on which you should handle and the ones to delegate. If your dollar value per hour is 300 and it takes you about an hour to sort your mails each day, you may consider outsourcing email management.

Have a Deadline to Every Project

Deadlines are very important in time management because they help you to prioritize. If you work in an environment where someone else is setting deadlines, have your personal deadline before the official deadline. This will improve your time management and productivity.

Don’t Procrastinate

Procrastination is the greatest thief of time and if you can manage to outmuscle it, you will be the biggest winner in time management. If you can work on something today, why push it to the following day. However, when doing this, have it at the back of your mind that you need to prioritize so that you do not bring forward tasks that could have been best done the following day.

With these time management hacks, you can start your journey into productivity and success.

It is the end of the month and you are wondering how comes your bills have soared that high or your paycheck doesn’t seem to make sense at all. Living from paycheck to paycheck is a habit most middle income families go through and it is draining to say the least. You may even have attended talks and lectures on financial management, but still you seem to get things wrong. Instead of cascading down the hill of financial failure, it is for your own benefit if you stop and smell the coffee because learning how to save money is a skill like any other which you can internalize and work it to your advantage.

Below are some tips that will stop you from dreaming and spring you into action as you do something about your finances today.

Build Better Relationships

Relationship building is the first step if you want to pull yourself from the financial quicksand and start a saving culture. There are several ways you can build these relationships amongst them are:

Talking to your bank –If you have loans or credit card debt, talking to your bankers particularly on the interest rates and your plans to pay off that debt can win you better deals and rates. Unless you talk to them, you may never know what is possible.

Make friends –Friendships are support systems that can help you live in frugality. For instance, instead of hanging out at expensive brunches and the movies, you can decide to go to a pack or explore a nearby town where none of you has spent time in.

Evolve Your Entertainment Options

Review your perspective of entertainment and if possible drop the expensive options in favor of the less costly ones. For instance, reading a book is cheaper and much more rewarding than going to the movies. If you have a cable subscription, analyze the number of channels that you watch and filter out what is not necessary so that you can downgrade and still enjoy your life.

Shop Smart and Eat Smart

Shopping takes a significant chunk of the family budget because somehow elicits excitement within us to go for things that we do not need or cannot afford. The best way to shop is to have a list that you follow carefully. If something is not in the list, it means it is not that important otherwise you would have remembered and included it while making the list. Instead of throwing out rotten or spoiled food, have a habit of regularly checking your fridge or pantry and pick out any stuff that is about to expire. Cook in bulk as this saves money and time. Compare prices in grocery stores, pay close attention to expiration dates when shopping, and forego expensive habits such as cigarette smoking and drinking.

Make Use of Technology to Your Advantage

Technology came so that tasks that would have taken us so much time to do or much effort to remember are lifted off our shoulders. When used wisely, technology can save you money. For instance, you can set up offers on your email account or invest in a programmable thermostat that saves you lots of energy. Subscribing to online banking can also save you money because you will be able to make your bill payments early enough to avoid penalties and take advantage of discounts.

Live Conscientiously

If you are careful on the way you live, you can save lots of money which can be put into some other use. For instance, resting your dryer can save you on electricity and running ceiling fans counterclockwise in summer and in a clockwise direction in winter can save you lost of money in energy. You can also develop a habit of unplugging chargers and other devices when not in use because this tends to suck energy.

When it comes to saving, the devil is in the details. Looking at the small things that steal your cash from you and developing a strategy to tame them, can be the beginning of your robust saving culture.